Episode 98: Wivenhoe And Somerset Bass With Scott Mitchell

Scotto’s Top Tips For Wivenhoe And Somerset Bass

• Wivenhoe and Somerset are classic trophy bass lakes, with large female fish often schooling up on the flats in 10m or less of after during the late winter and early spring.
• There’s no need to be on either lake at the crack of dawn. Bass can bite well all day, with late arvo often one of the better times.
• Often once one of two fish have been convinced to bite you’ll find others congregate beneath the boat. The key is to move off the fish occasionally and they’ll continue to bite or longer.
• If the fish are and bait are sounding but you’re not getting any action, try using a paddle tail plastic or vibe and slowing things down as much as possible.
• Watch your sounder and if the your lure is working through a school of fish but not getting bites it’s time to try a different lure or retrieve.

Scotto’s Best Bass Fishing Lures

• 7 foot spin rods with 2500-3000 size reels and 10lb braid with an 8-12lb fluorocarbon is standard for Scotto on the bass impoundments. Fish up to 12-14lb leader for the bigger fish, but drop back in leader size if the fish are shy.

Scotto’s Best Bass Fishing Lures

• A 75mm Squidgies Fish in silver fox colour is a good choice, rigged on a 5/8 oz Smak Lures jig head. This is cast long and allowed to sink to the bottom to be worked back through fish hanging close to the lake floor. Vary the retrieve from a slow roll to small hops and pauses until you find what’s working, then rinse and repeat.
• A Gangbanger G2 spoon works well when fish are up off the bottom and more active. Find schooling fish, sink the lure down and work it back up through the school. Use occasional pauses to let the lure sink again and keep it at the required depth. Watch the sounder to check that your lure is within the school. Variations in the retrieve with occassional pauses will get strikes
• Mini Candy 40mm blades are great fished slowly close to the bottom in small hops. Pause occasionally to let them get back down deep, then continue the retrieve.